Trying to Survive
by msspicyjalapeno
Summary: After Rick and the group have made it clear that Merle isn't welcome a the prison, Daryl and Merle set off on their own journey. The brothers come across a group on their travels and they both realize that they are doing exactly what he and Merle are trying to do...Survive. SYOC for the group closed except for antagonists! (Previously being written by BreenaBelle-xoxo)
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Walking Dead (duh) I'm only gonna say that once.**

 **REMEMBER: This story idea was originally started by BreenaBelle-xoxo, but she wasn't able to fit the story in her schedule so she gave me the rights to it.**

 **Here's the first chapter! These first chapters will establish the group more before Daryl and Merle are introduced in it.**

 **This chapter is dedicated to Dame Rivere and skyeblue5565!**

* * *

 **Josette's POV:**

"Alright, kid. Here's where we split ways. Good luck to you," the man told me. I hummed in response, watching as the man, his wife, and three children walked off into the forest. Once they disappeared from my eyesight, I looked around, completely lost at what I should do. My family was dead, there were moaners going around attacking people, I had no food, water, or protection, and let's not forget that I'm only 12 years old! I allowed myself to sit on my knees, crying as I tried to think of what to do next. Eventually my tears dried and my stomach began to gurgle. Food. I'll go find food. That will be my first mission.

I wandered into a subdivision after about an hour of walking. Surely there would be people here that would feed me. The neighborhood was empty of people and moaners. Things scattered the front lawns of people's houses from when they left. I stepped up to the front door of a large two-story house. I knocked gently on the door, which swung open as soon as I touched it. I carefully stepped in, calling out in the house for someone. I got no response. The people had left, abandoning the house. That meant anything in the house was fair game, right? But it would be stealing and that's wrong. I struggled inwardly with my morals as I walked to the kitchen. After opening the fridge and seeing it was still stocked full of groceries, my hunger gave out. I grabbed enough sandwich meat, cheese, and bread to make me just one sandwich, careful only to take just what I needed.

As I ate my sandwich, I walked around the house, looking at the photos of the happy family and wondering what happened to them. As I made my way into the garage I stared in awe at the man's weapon supply. There were tons of knives and a few guns. I knew I would need protection from moaners, but it still didn't feel right stealing these things. I talked myself into taking one hunting knife, which I carefully put in my backpack. I looked down at the pink flower dress with lace at the bottom. No matter how much I loved this dress, it was impractical to wear. I quickly shed my clothes and changed into my loose fitting jeans and a bright pink t-shirt. I left my light blue sweatshirt in my backpack since it was too hot to wear. Thinking it would be better to have the knife out where I could get to it in case of emergency, I attached it to my belt loop. I did a quick inventory of my bag. There were a few coloring books, some colored pencils, pencil sharpener, and one change of clothes. I sighed. What was I supposed to do now?

I walked back through the house, deciding I should put some more distance between the city full of moaners and myself. As I walked out the door, a moaning sound to my left caused me to turn just in time to see a moaner coming for me. It grabbed my arm, making me let out an involuntary scream. I quickly yanked my arm free, running as it followed me. Two more came out from the side of the house and followed me. I was so busy looking over my shoulder I didn't see what I was running toward. I ran into another body, causing me to fall to the ground. A curvy, dark haired brunette easily stepped over me, pulling out a large knife from her side and walking from one moaner to the next, stabbing them in the head. I sat there, watching with wide eyes. As the last moaner fell to the ground dead, the woman turned around. She had almond shaped eyes that were a golden brown color. Her skin was a fair aside from the 'y' shaped scar on her cheek. Her long, dark brown, wavy hair went to her hipbone. She wore a black tank top that showed some cleavage, a black leather jacket, tight jean shorts, and a pair of lace combat boots that went all the way up to her knees. She looked to be in her early twenties and wore what seemed a permanent scowl. The phrase "resting bitch face" came to mind. She calmly wiped her blade on one of the moaners clothes to clean it before putting it away.

"You alright?" She asked me. I blinked at her, still a little stunned by her appearance and display of violence. "Were you bit or scratched?" I finally shook my head in response. "Are your parents around?" Again, I shook my head. "You alone?" I nodded slowly, unsure if I should be telling someone this. She studied me for a second. Her eyes seemed to soften a fraction. "What's your name kid?"

"Josette Scott," I said softly. The lady walked forward to me, sticking out her hand to help me stand. Hesitantly, I took it.

"I'm Skyler Chamberlain, call me Sky. Wanna stick with me? I promise I'll keep you safe, and as fed as possible," Sky offered. Her face remained neutral, making her hard to read. She had saved me, so I guess she was safe.

"Okay," I mumbled to her. I would still stay on guard around her. I didn't know her at all, and there was no way that I was going to let my guard down after what happened to my brothers.

"Follow me. Stay close and speak up if you hear or see something," Sky ordered as she marched out of the neighborhood and back toward the highway.

"What are we looking for?" I asked. Sky didn't look back over her shoulder as she answered me.

"A safe place to stay the night. It's getting dark and this place doesn't set well with me after the biters I just killed," Sky answered.

* * *

 **Sky's POV:**

Josette was strangely quiet for a young girl. Most children, even the injured ones I would see at my work, would try and talk my ear off. Josette however was content with one word answers and very little talking had been during the past day. I glanced at the girl at my side. Josette was very slim, not quite having gone all the way through puberty. Her reddish-brown hair fell to just below her ears, bangs sitting on the right side of her face, with her short hair layered and messy. Her height didn't look like it even reach 5 feet. She had olive skin with dark freckles across her nose and large, brown, doe like eyes. The way she looked just screamed innocence and you couldn't help but want to protect her.

"So Josette, what's your most favorite thing to do in the world?" I asked, hoping to draw the girl out of her shell. There was such a length of silence I thought she wasn't going to answer me.

"Coloring," Josette finally answered. There was a sight blush, like she was embarrassed by the fact that she still liked to color.

"Cool. What do you like to color most?" I asked, pleased that I had finally gotten her to talk.

"Fairies. I like coloring their dresses and wings. Or pictures of sunsets because there are so many colors you can use," Josette answered much quicker this time. The corner of my lip twitched in amusement at the excitement in her voice. So this was how you got her to open up. "What do you like to do?"

"I like helping people. Before the outbreak I was a paramedic," I replied easily. "Let's sit here for a quick break and a snack." Josette complied, plopping to the ground as we pulled out a granola bar. We sat in silence, sipping on our water and eating. A sudden snap of a twig caused both of us to jump.

"Did you hear that?" Josette whispered. I nodded in answer. "Think it's a moaner?" I didn't respond but moved my hand to my knife anyways. People were untrustworthy before the outbreak, much less now. I wasn't going to let anyone near this little girl. The bushes began to rustle, as a moaner made its way through, only it wasn't just one moaner, there were at least a dozen. They came at us, grabbing at our clothes. I stabbed one in the head while I attempted to hold off the others.

"Josette, run!" I yelled, but it was too late. A moaner was grabbing at her clothes, too. Josette struggled with it before tripping and falling with it on top of her. She let out a terrified scream as she tried to get it off. I stabbed another moaner in the face, struggling to get to the girl as more moaners came between us. It seemed like no matter how many I stabbed, another moaner took its place. We needed help, and quickly.

* * *

 **Sky looks like Summer Glau**

 **Josette looks like Mackenzie Foy**


	2. Chapter 2

**Just a reminder that this story was originally on BreenaBelle-xoxo's page, but she couldn't do the story and passed it on to me. I DO have permission from her to continue the story.**

 **Thank you all for the reviews, favorites, and follows!**

 **I know the chapters are pretty short, but I plan to do one to two updates a week for this story.**

 **Just so everyone knows:**

 **Sky looks like Summer Glau**

 **Josette looks like Mackenzie Foy**

 **Austin looks like Cameron Boyce**

 **Brody looks like Liam Hemsworth**

 **This chapter is dedicated to Blondie47x.**

* * *

 **Brody's POV:**

I ran into the building, cursing the doors that didn't lock. I didn't have time to find something to jam under the door; the mob of shufflers was already pushing its way through the door. I ran through the building quickly, keeping my crossbow handy as I turned corners. I managed to get a few steps ahead of the mob, only to see a random kid asleep on the ground. I debated leaving, going on as if I hadn't seen him. It was survival of the fittest now anyways, wasn't it? It had been weeks since I had seen another human being and I craved conversation.

I put my hand over the kid's mouth, causing the kid to jump and struggle for a second before he looked at my face. I put a finger to my lips, telling him to be quiet before pointing to my ears for him to listen. I saw his eyes widen as he understood. He gave me a curt nod, knocked my hand away, and began to quietly stand, grabbing his bag as he did so. I made a move to go on down the hallway, but he quickly grabbed my arm to stop me. He pointed at the stairs, heading that way without even checking to see if I was following him.

Reluctantly I followed him. We went up a set of stairs before going into a side room. There was a small window that we could get out. The kid jerked it open, checking the outside area before he jumped out. I stuck my head out and watched as the kid managed to jump onto the fire escape of the building right next to us before scaling down. He looked up at me, waiting for me to follow. I could hear shufflers getting closer behind me. I put my crossbow on my back so I could use both hands. I managed to jump to the fire escape with much less grace than the kid and made quite a bit more noise as well. I dropped to the ground, the kid and I both cringing as the fire escape continued to ring from my landing. Moaning on the streets stirred us into a run. Neither one of us talked as we ran.

After at least 45 minutes of running, we stopped when we reached the outskirts of the city. We panted, finally looking at each other. The kid wore a black beanie on his head. He had chocolate brown eyes, and a natural looking light tan. Freckles were spread across his cheeks and he was only a few inches shorter than my 6'3" frame. He wore a blue and orange plaid button up, long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled halfway up his arms. His right forearm had a gnarly looking scar going from his wrist to his elbow. His shirt was unbuttoned, revealing a stained white wife beater beneath it. From his blue Jean pants, a machete hung and I could make out a handgun tucked under his shirt. His shoes were worn black converses and he had a small green backpack on his back.

"I'm Brody Matthews." I said, sticking my hand out to him. He eyed it wearily before eventually taking it. "Austin Stewart." He answered in a much deeper voice than I would have pegged him with.

"What are you doing in the city by yourself?" I asked. A dark look passed over Austin's face.

"The rest died " Austin shrugged in response like it was no big deal.

"Same here." I replied, causing Austin's expression to return back to normal. "Got any grub?" Austin shook his head no. "Me either. I'm starved. Let's go see what we can find." And just like that, I had a traveling companion again.

 **Austin's POV:**

I walked beside Brody, checking him out from the corner of my eye. He was tall, muscular with broad shoulders, and a tan. He had dark brown hair that was long on top and cut short on the side. His eyes were the same shade of dark brown as his hair and he had a tattoo sleeve on his right arm. He wore army style cargo pants, a tight black button up short sleeve shirt with the top two buttons undone to reveal his well toned chest and a few chest hairs. His outfit seemed oddly completed by his steel-toed boots. He was the hottest guy I had ever met. He walked with confidence, his crossbow slung over his shoulder, machete hanging from his side, and a gun poked out the back of his pants. We had barley been together for a full day, but I already could feel myself starting to trust him.

"I don't swing that way, dude." Brody spoke up, breaking my stare at his ass. His voice was light, playful. Good, he wasn't mad.

"Your loss." I shrugged, smirking as we continued to walk. "Doesn't mean I still can't enjoy the scenery." Brody smirked confidently.

"What did you do before all this shit?" Brody asked, taking a pair of aviator glasses from his pocket and putting them on.

"Junior in high school. I worked with my dad in his store after school. Did gymnastics some. Never got to compete though because I refused to be seen in those ridiculous tights." I shrugged as we turned into a small suburban neighborhood. "You?"

"I was in training to be a cop. Lived in San Francisco." He replied, pulling out his crossbow as we crept toward the first house.

"How the hell did you end up in the suburbs of Atlanta?" I joked.

"I had group of friends. We were traveling city-to-city trying to find a refugee camp of some kind. When we got to Atlanta though, we were attacked. I'm the only one that made it." He told me. We were quiet for a few seconds as we checked the house for the dead.

"Sucks." I spoke up as we entered the kitchen. Brody grunted in agreement.

"So you only bone dudes or do you go both ways?" Brody spoke up as we stuffed cans of food into our backpacks. I let out a snort.

"I go both ways, asshole." I told him, sending him a smile.

"Score!" Brody exclaimed, pulling out a snickers bar. He quickly opened it, split it in half and gave me some. I'd just finished my last bite when I heard a young girls scream. It sounded so similar to my sisters that even though I knew she was dead, I instantly ran toward the scream full speed. "No, Austin! Man! Come back!" Brody yelled after me, but I was already sprinting toward the scream. I heard him let out a curse before the sound of his pursuit met my ears. I reached the highway we had just came from, my eyes instantly finding a woman and girl being attacked by a little over a dozen dead ones. The young girl was on the ground, a dead one on top of her as it snapped its jaws to try and bite her. I ran over, stabbing it through the head. I ripped the body off of her, turning and standing between her and the oncoming dead ones. Brody finally arrived, shooting on with his crossbow before pulling out the machete to finish the others. As the woman threw the last of the dead ones to the ground, we all stood there panting for a second. "Jesus, you can run kid." Brody panted, walking over to the dead one he had shot and ripping out the arrow.

"Who are you and what do you want?" The woman demanded, turning toward us, her knife still in hand. The girl jumped from the ground to run and stand by the woman's side.

"What? No thank you for saving your asses?" Brody sassed. The woman's face stayed hard as she glared at Brody.

"We just heard the screams and came to help." I told her, realizing that the woman didn't care for Brody's sense of humor. Her piercing gaze turned to me.

"Well we didn't need it. We could have handled the moaners." She snapped.

"So that's why they were snapping right at your necks. Because you could handle them." Brody said sarcastically.

"You call 'em moaners? That's better than dead ones." I mumbled.

"Dead ones? Well aren't you just the most unimaginative little shit." Brody commented. I smirked, rolling my eyes.

"Alright, Mr. All knowing chest hairs, what do you call them?" I sassed.

"Shufflers. But I like moaners better. More descriptive." He mused out loud. I turned my attention back to the girls. The young girl still seemed tense, but the woman was now relaxed some, her knife put away.

"We aren't going to hurt you." I told her. Her eyes moved to me, her face still a mask.

"I know." She answered simply. There was a long pause where no one talked. Brody came to stand next to me.

"Right, well I'm Austin and this is -" I started to say, but Brody smacking me across the back of the head stopped me.

"Dude, we don't even know them." Brody pointed at them, acting like they couldn't hear them even though he was talking at a normal volume.

" _I_ don't even know you." I answered smirking. Brody made a noise of dismissal.

"We've known each other for almost 24 hours, what more do you need to figure out?" Brody challenged.

"She has a kid with her. Why would she have a kid with her the way the world is now if she wasn't a semi decent human being." I responded.

"Semi decent human? That's your argument? What if she has the kid so that we will let our guard down and then she can steal our stuff and run?" Brody thought up.

"Why are we talking about them like their not even right there?" I asked.

"Well the polite thing to do is for them to turn away and pretend like they can't hear us." Brody sassed.

"Pretty sure politeness went out the door when the dead came back to life." I responded, letting out a chuckle.

"Will you two shut up already?" The woman snapped. "My names Sky. This is Josette."

"He's Brody." I jumped in, pointing a finger at the man. Brody glared at me, grabbing my finger and giving it a hard yank backwards, causing me to yelp.

"Do you have shelter for the night? Somewhere we can stay?" Sky asked.

"What do you mean, we?" Brody argued.

"Yeah, we were raiding a house back there. Should be clean still." I answered, ignoring Brody.

"Good. We should stay there tonight. Tomorrow we should try and get further away from the city." Sky said in a voice that left no room for argument. Before anyone could answer she started walking toward the way I had pointed, Josette in tow.

"Wait, who said they could join us?" Brody asked me as he scratched his head. I shrugged.

"She did, apparently."


	3. Chapter 3

**Just a reminder that this story was originally on BreenaBelle-xoxo's page, but she couldn't do the story and passed it on to me. I DO have permission from her to continue the story.**

 **I had a lot of requests for longer chapters, so this one is longer than the others. The other chapter will all probably be this length and I will update 2 a week!**

 **If anyone has any OC antagonist feel free to send them in (as many as you want). Also, if you are good at Photoshop (unlike me) feel free to send in a pic for me to use as the story cover or just a photo in general that you suggest. I'll make sure to give you the credit!**

 **Check out the link on my profile for the tumblr page for this story (credit to WaffleManiac).**

 **This chapter is dedicated to WaffleManiac for more reasons than one! Thanks for all your help!**

 **The new Character looks like Freya Mavor**

* * *

 **Josette's POV:**

We had been together for a week now. Each of us growing more comfortable around the other, though not necessarily getting along.

"No," Sky answered, her arms crossed in front of her as we sat around our small camp fire on the outskirts of town.

"What the hell do you mean, 'no'. You and Josette are the chicks. You two should be the one doing the laundry and cooking, while Austin and I keep the camp safe and hunt for food." Brody argued the same argument that they had been having for two days now.

"Man, don't bring me into this." Austin huffed from where he sat next to me. Maybe it was just my imagination but Austin always seemed the most at ease when he was near me.

"Josette and I are not just doing the laundry and cooking. We can help with hunting, runs, and protecting the camp just as good as you can." Sky argued. She was staying much calmer than Brody, but I could see her inching closer to her anger.

"Look, we may have evolved to women power or rights or whatever you want to call it. But that was before. Now, we have deevolved. Get over. There are certain roles women are expected to do." Brody's jaw flexed in anger. Sky's face darkened as she leaned forward. Alarm bells went off in my head at her stance. Apparently they did for Austin too because I felt him stiffen next to me. Sky opened her mouth to talk, but Austin cut her off.

"How about we just rotate. Everybody takes turns with laundry and we all help out with everything else." Austin said in a bored voice, but I could feel his leg twitching next to mine with nerves.

"Sounds good," Sky nodded. Brody, however, looked less appeased.

"What! No! Dude, you're supposed to be on my side." Brody snapped.

"I'm not on your side. I'm on Josette's side." Austin joked, attempting to lighten the angry mood. Which reminds me, I should probably tell them.

"I prefer Josie, actually." I spoke up. Austin had a contemplative look on his before before he nodded in approval.

"Fine. Josie, Austin, and I will rotate _our_ laundry and _you_ can wash your own damn clothes." Sky interrupted. Though her face remained impassive, her eyes screamed smugness.

"Oh, come on! Fine! Whatever. We can all take turns." Brody conceded before getting up and storming away from the camp.

"Hot head," Sky said under her breath. Austin snorted next to me, which in turn made me giggle some.

"Sky, how old are you?" Austin asked as he leaned back on his hands.

"21. You?" She responded while poking the embers of the fire.

"17," Austin seemed to hesitate before asking the next question. "Do...do you think the world will ever turn back to normal?" Sky was silent for a few seconds.

"No," She answered in a flat voice. A solemn mood settled over us. We didn't say anything for a few minutes. It was making me sad to think about, so I decided to try and lighten the mood like Austin always did.

"That's good, I guess. I was failing pre-algebra." I mumbled. Austin let out a loud laugh, while Sky started smirking. I couldn't help but laughing along with Austin. Our laughter was cut short by a noise in the bushes. Austin immediately stood up, hand on the handle of his machete. Sky had her hand around her back resting on the gun, eyes trained on woods in front of us. We whipped around as the noise suddenly came from behind us. Brody stepped out, a dead rabbit in his hands. Seeing Sky pointing a gun at him and Austin with his machete out and about to swing at him, he quickly raised his hands.

"What the hell are you doing?" Brody demanded. Austin and Sky lowered their weapons but still looked on edge.

"Were you the one making noises out there?" Austin asked in a hushed voice.

"No. I just walked straight here from that side." He answered, throwing his thumb over his shoulder.

"Well then someone or something's watching us." Sky told him. Brody opened his mouth to talk, but stopped when some twigs snapped behind me. I jumped up from where I was, running to Austin's side and take a fist full of his shirt in my hand. Austin wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into his side as Brody dropped the rabbit, raising his crossbow as he inched forward to look. Sky and Brody circled the camp in opposite directions as Austin and I stayed glued in the same place.

"I don't see anything," Brody said in a hushed voice, but no one lowered their weapons. We all jumped when a distant scream rang through the air. It was definitely female. Everyone looked at the other, waiting for someone else to make the first move as the screaming continued.

"Aren't we going to help her?" I asked. I looked to Sky and Brody; both dropped their eyes, not meeting my gaze. I turned to Austin who was already not looking at me. "Austin?" He finally looked at me. He let out a sigh.

"Stay right behind me," He told me. I smiled, nodding. Brody and Sky made sounds of annoyance but ran along Austin and I. We paused as we got close to the screaming. A girl, no more than a few inches taller than me was hanging from the bottom of a branch as she attempted to shake the moaners off her shoe. She spotted us quickly.

"Help, _please_!" She sobbed at us. Austin let go of my hand as he ran in with Brody and Sky to kill the eight moaners surrounding the tree. A stray began stumbling toward me. I let out a squeak of fear, unable to get anything else out. An arrow appeared from its skull as it dropped to the floor. Brody gave me a nod before turning in a circle to look for more, but not finding any. The girl dropped down from the branch, collapsing on the ground in a few sobs. None of us said anything, we just watched.

"Where you the one watching our camp?" Brody asked. The girl didn't stop her sobs and just shook her head. "Did you see anyone else out here?" Again, she shook her head. We fell back into a silence for a few minutes until her sobs started to subside. Sky started walking away, the rest of us following her. "Wait! Don't leave me alone! Please, I can't do this alone. I need help. _Please_ ," she begged us.

"No, our groups big enough already." Sky's short and cold reply shocked me.

"Well, we took you and Josie in, why not her, too?" Brody sassed.

"No, I decided that Josie and I could use a few more people. You know, safety in numbers. I don't trust her," Sky eyed the girl with narrow eyes.

"Please. She's harmless. She couldn't even defend herself against a walker much less a person," Austin brushed off Sky's worries.

"I don't care. I don't trust her any more than I do Brody or you, Austin." Austin and Brody exchanged a surprised look. "Like I said before, I just need some more capable eyes to sound the alarm when moaners get close."

"Please don't leave me." The girl whimpered from where she sat curled up in a ball on the ground. There was a pregnant pause.

"Fine," Brody sighed. Sky scoffed in annoyance as she turned around and stomped back off toward our camp. The girl immediately jumped up, her scared and shy demeanor gone.

"Great! Which way's camp? We should start heading back. Do you guys have food? I'm starved. We should probably move camp. The...moaners, that's what you guys called them right? Anyways, they were probably attracted by my screams," the girl rattled off as she walked off in the direction that Sky had gone.

"Yeah, thanks for that," Austin replied sarcastically, coming to walk by my side.

"The hell? She's fine," Brody complained to us.

"Yeah. She was acting. Don't be mad that you fell for it," Austin laughed, me joining in.

"And she's already bossier than Sky," Brody snapped. Austin and I shrugged.

"You're the one who said yes," I giggled. The girl suddenly popped up back in front of us.

"Oh, by the way, my name is Arizona, Arizona Collier."

* * *

 **Arizona's POV:**

I walked around the abandoned house, looking at the person's different belongs. I paused in front of a mirror, taking in how I now looked. My 5'1" slim frame was covered in a dark brown tank top, Jean shorts, and a pair of sneakers. My curly blonde hair that usually went to my shoulder blades was in a french braid that Josie had been nice enough to do for me that morning. My fair skin was covered in freckles, and my bright blue eyes had bags under them from our lack of sleep. I still had the single stud in my earlobes and one in my cartilage. The scar on my wrist from when I fell as a child was still as prominent as ever. My shoulders sagged from tiredness and my hair had a little less of its sheen.

"Find anything?" I jumped when Austin appeared at my side. He laughed as he sat down his now full duffle bag. "You should be more on guard."

"Why be on guard when I have you?" Austin rolled his eyes at me. "I didn't find much. A few toothbrushes, toothpaste, some water bottles, and a really cool keychain." I held up the keychain of a demon ward. Austin looked at me warily. "It's from the TV show Supernatural, you dummy."

"Thank, God you found that. Goodness knows what we would have done if we didn't have that to remind us how to make that symbol," Austin said sarcastically, beginning to make his way out the door. I grabbed my own bag, running after him.

"Can I ask you something?" Austin shrugged, nodding his head.

"You guys still don't like me, do you?" I kicked a rock with my foot as we walked down the road. It had been a week since I convinced them to let me in, and I was still treated much the same. Austin took a little while to respond.

"Josie's just shy and skittish, but I think she likes you alright. Brody's an ass, he finds everything an annoyance. Sky may like you, but she doesn't really show a lot of emotion. She doesn't trust you, that's for sure, but she doesn't trust any of us really. Well...maybe she trusts Josie," Austin trailed off in thought.

"What about you? I mean, you had me come with you today on the run," I questioned.

"I had you come with me because Sky wanted me to see how you did on a run. We haven't had anything hard though, so I can't really judge," Austin explained. My hopes for a friend started to fall. "As for if I like you, I guess you're okay. I don't really know you. Wait! I hate you in the morning. You're too perky." I laughed at him.

"What can I say? I'm just a morning person," I shrugged, jumping onto a log to walk across it. Austin let out an annoyed sigh.

"Fine. Just don't talk to me in the morning. Wait for me to start communicating with you," Austin told me in a serious voice. This guy really took his sleep seriously.

"I can do that," I paused, thinking over his words earlier. "If the problem is you don't know me, then just ask questions! I'm an open book."

"Where ya from and how'd you get to Atlanta?" Austin began.

"I'm 17 and I'm from Oklahoma. All my siblings were a lot older than me and had already left the house. I'm not sure what happened to any of them or if they are alive. They never came back home after it started," I spoke bitterly. I shook my head to clear the angry thoughts. "Anyways, when we finally figured out what was going on, my dad shot and killed himself, leaving my mom and me. I couldn't take staying there after that, but my mother insisted on waiting at home in case any of my siblings returned. I heard about the refugee camp in Atlanta and decided to come here. I left my mom all the money that I could spare from what I saved up and left. I hitchhiked or walked most of the way here." I looked to Austin, who had a surprisingly dark look on his face. "You, okay?" Austin scrubbed a hand over his face before giving me a smile that didn't reach his eyes and nodding. "Before all this happened I went to high school and worked at a smaller diner in town. I never planned on college though. What about you?" The dark look returned to Austin's face.

"I went to school. Worked at my dad's store. Everything went to hell; traveled with my family for a little while. Then they died. A while after I found Brody," Austin answered shortly.

"I'm sorry. How did it happen?" I asked, putting a comforting hand on Austin's arm. Austin's jaw flexed before he quickly brushed my hand off.

"Same way everything happens now a days," he answered vaguely. I guess he didn't want to talk about it.

"Not that I really remember where we are going, but shouldn't we be back to camp by now?" I asked, glancing at the surroundings.

"It's right there," Austin answered, a tiny bit of relief passing over his face before worry edged it's way in. "We should have run into Sky by now from her circling the camp." As we topped the small hill that the small shed was on, worry flourished in my own stomach. Our camp was empty, no one and nothing was there. It looked like it had been left in a hurry. Did they abandon us? "Where are they?"

"Do you think they left us?" My voice came out more timid than I meant for it to. Austin looked at me for a second in panic before shaking his head.

"No, Brody wouldn't leave me like that. If he was going without me, he would have told me to my face, not run off like a coward when I was gone." Austin seemed like he was trying to convince himself more than me. Two guns cocking behind us made us both turn around. Two unfamiliar men stood with guns pointed at our heads. Both men were beefy. One was bald while the other had his graying black hair tied in a ponytail.

"Don't move."


	4. Chapter 4

**In case you didn't see this story while I was take OC's, this story was Originally thought up by the amazing BreenaBelle-xoxo, but she was unable to start writing it. Thus, she passed it onto me. So just a reminder that I _DO_ have permission to be writing it.**

 **To the Guest reviewers: I'm glad you are liking the story. There will be plenty more female and male characters being added. Hopefully if some of these characters aren't your favorite, then there will be more added on that you will like!**

 **Check out my profile for the tumblr page for this story!**

 **If you have any OC antagonist that you think up, feel free to send them in!**

 **Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! You guys are the best!**

 **This Chapter is dedicated to: TVD123, SoutherSinfonian, and He-Who-Holmes.**

* * *

 **Austin's POV:**

Arizona and I walked with our hands behind our head. They had taken both of our bags.

"Where are we going?" Arizona asked, her voice wavering slightly.

"Back to the rest of our group," the longhaired man answered. I could feel the tip of the gun between the shoulder blades of my back.

"Are you the guys who have been watching us?" I asked.

"Yeah, started watching you guys last night. Went in for the rest of the group when we saw you split up," the longhaired man explained.

"Man, shut up. You shouldn't be telling them this kind of stuff," baldy snapped at the other guy. So they weren't the ones who have been watching us for the past week.

"Why not? They can't do anything. We have a bigger group than them. We have ten people, that's twice their size. Not to mention we have more man power and weapons, even if we are split up." I could barely see baldy as he held his gun behind Arizona.

"Shut your large mouth, you idiot!" Baldy snapped, slapping ponytail on the back of the head. Ponytail let out a yelp, but finally stopped talking.

"What are you going to do with us?" Arizona asked.

"We have a place for most of you," baldy answered us vaguely. His words made my gut clench in uneasiness. The rest of the walk was quiet. Their camp was on the edge of the woods, right next to a small deserted town. I began to hear talking as we neared the camp. Finally, we saw them. There was a small fire pit in the center. Sky and Josie sat side by side, their wrists bound behind them. Josie had tear streaks down her face and Sky even looked pretty frightened. Brody was lying on the ground, dried blood on his head, and completely knocked out. Two men stood behind Sky and Josie, a third wandered around the camp.

"Sit," ponytail ordered, shoving me to my knees. My hands stayed behind my head as I watched Arizona also be bound. I glanced at Brody. His eyes were silted, looking at me through barely a crack. When ponytail moved around, Brody quickly shut his eyes again. Brody was faking it. I quickly brought my head back around to the girls.

"What do you want from us?" Sky asked in her usually hard tone of voice. The man wandering the camp came over, taking Arizona's bag and mine from baldy. He unzipped them, staring at it's content.

"For starters, we want all your food. It's easier for you guys to scavenge it for us, face the shufflers, and then us take it from you," the wanderer explained. He glanced at Sky then. "Also, our group is lacking a certain gender, and to be honest, we're getting a little lonely." I stiffened at the words. No, this can't be happening.

"What about the guys, what are you going to do with them?" Sky asked. She didn't look at all surprised by the news, almost like she had expected him to say the things he did.

"The big one will have to go. The smaller one, probably have to go, too," the blonde headed guy behind the girls spoke up. Josie whimpered, drawing their attention.

"Aww, don't worry sweetheart. We'll take good care of you," baldy cooed as he stroked Josie's cheek. Josie tried to shy away, but her back ran into the man with the scarred face behind her. Not again. This wasn't going to happen. I don't care if I have to die to make sure it doesn't. Brody just needs a signal. Before I could over think it, I jumped forward, grabbing onto the gun from ponytail. A shot went off as I managed to grab the gun from ponytail in his shocked surprised state, straddling him in the process. I quickly took a deep breath before shooting him in the head. I looked up. Brody had jumped up as well. He was currently pounding into wanderer. Sky, Josie, and Arizona had jumped up as well. Sky had managed to get her hands to the front of her body, steal baldy's knife, and was now stabbing him with it. Arizona had merely just charged blondie, not being able to do much more than knock him over. Sky, who had swiftly killed baldy, cut her own binds and began to help Arizona in killing blondie. Josie was pinned beneath scar face, but had managed to sink her teeth into his arm enough to draw blood, making the man cry out. I rushed over to her, hitting the man on the side of his head with the butt of the gun. Scarred man yelled in surprise as he fell over. I lifted the gun, taking a deep breath, not looking into the eyes of the man, as I fired. I rushed over to Josie, taking a knife and cutting her binds. Her wrists were chaffed from the rope, and she had a growing bruise on her cheek from where she had probably been hit by one of the men.

"You ok?" I asked. Josie nodded as I helped her stand. I looked around at our group. Sky was bloody; standing over the now dead blonde man with Arizona as she cut said girl's bonds. Brody stood as well, blood covering his hands from punching the wanderer to death. We stayed silent for a moment, breathing heavily.

"He said that there were more people in their group." Arizona spoke up. How had I already forgotten that?

"Alright, everybody get your things and take their weapons. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible. Their group or moaners could have heard the gunshots," Brody ordered us. No one bothered fighting over being ordered around by him, we knew he was right. We scurried around the camp, throwing our things and some of theirs into bags. A sharp pain in my side made me look down. I drew my hand away from the spot to find it covered in blood. I looked down, finally starting to feel the gunshot wound in my side. Shit. Voices started sounding behind us, causing us all to freeze.

"Let's go," Sky whispered to us. We rushed off, trying to be quiet, but in reality the only quiet ones were Josie and Brody. Twigs snapped under my feet as I tried to ignore the pain in my side.

"Did you hear something?" I heard a voice ask as we continued to run toward the town. At the sound of angered yelling we began to run faster. I panted hard, falling behind the group as we ran. I could hear the men following us, yelling at each other in anger. When we broke the tree line into the city, I couldn't do it anymore. I stopped, leaning over as I panted. I was already feeling dizzy from…something. I know I know the reason why, but I'm just too tired to think of it.

"Austin? What are you doing? We got to go!" I tried to stand back up straight at Brody's words, but my world started getting dizzy and swaying. I could barely make out the other's shocked faces as I felt myself starting to lean to the side. I saw them rushing forward, feeling arms catch me before the world went dark.

 **Brody's POV:**

I dove forward, barely managing to catch Austin before his head hit the concrete. Blood stained most of his shirt around his abdomen, and a visible gunshot wound showed through the hole in his shirt.

"What do we do?" Josie's frantic voice seemed to vocalize my own fears.

"We have to get away from them. They're gaining on us," Sky insisted, glancing back to the tree line in fear.

"What! No, we shouldn't move him. It will only cause him pain and we don't know how serious his injuries are." Arizona insisted.

"We can't stay here. I am _not_ going to get caught by those men. I refuse to be a sex slave," Sky insisted, practically growling the words out at Arizona. Sky seemed like a cornered animal in this moment; scared, desperate, and afraid.

"He's hurt, you can just get over it," Arizona snapped, glaring back at Sky and completely undeterred by Sky's glare.

"If you think –" Sky started to yell as she got up in Arizona's face, but Josie cut them off.

"Shut up! They'll hear you!" Josie yelled over the both of them. A shot landed at my feet, deciding for us if we should leave or not. Sky took the bag that was still around Austin's body while I scooped the boy up. We ran, shots firing after as. We made it into a small neighborhood for temporary cover.

"What do we do? Where are we supposed to go?" Arizona yelled as we ran around the neighborhood.

"We pick a house and defend ourselves in it," I answered starting to walk toward a house.

"And what happens when we run out of ammo," Sky countered.

"Then we fight them!" I barked back. Sky glared at me heatedly.

"That sounds like a great idea. Just give Josie a machete. A 12 year old can _totally_ take on a full grown man," Sky snapped, voice raised to almost a yell. I glanced at Josie. I had momently forgotten that she was so young. "No, we should continue running."

"That's a great idea! Running with someone who's been shot. I don't see _anything_ wrong with that plan," Arizona yelled sarcastically.

"Won't he bleed out for both of the plans?" Josie spoke loudly as her voice quivered. Before we could answer, shots and shouts rang out. Sky raised her gun, firing at the man that had appeared. All four of us started running in different directions.

"Go this way!" Arizona yelled, but no one listened to her. Suddenly, there was a man among us. He looked about the same height as my 6'3" frame and had dark brown hair in a military cut. He looked to be in his mid-30's. He wore army pants, tan shirt, combat boots, black tactical gloves, and a brown cowboy hat. He had a standard army backpack on. He had a rifle and was firing at the men chasing us. The two that had caught up to us went down quickly. We had all frozen from where we stood, staring at the old man. He glanced at Austin, who still hung bloody and unconscious in my arms.

"Get in the house, I'll cover you," the man's voice rang with authority. His accent sounded deeply Texan. The sound of more yelling stirred me into action. I ran into the house he pointed to, not bothering to see if the others followed me. I struggled to open the door, but suddenly Josie was there, opening it for me. I walked inside, checking the living room for moaners. Finding none, I sat Austin down on the couch, quickly pulling out my own gun as Sky, Arizona, and the man came inside. I was instantly in front of the man, gun pointed to his head.

"Who are you?" I questioned, staring at the guy intently. There were scars all over this guys body, but if he really was military, they could easily be explained. He stared at me calmly, not even seeming worried about the gun pointed to his head.

"My name is Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Autry, call me Joe. But we can get into that later. Right now we have a slight problem outside and in here," Joe leveled me with a serious look. My arms wavered before I finally lowered my weapon.

"What do you suggest?" I asked.

"How many are there left?" Joe responded, peering out the window from the side.

"Just three, unless they lied about how many of them their were," Arizona answered. She crept forward to look out the window too, but Joe's arm shot out stopping her.

"Don't get in front of the windows. We need to stay out of sight," Joe told all of us. There was an itch of something being off, but I couldn't place it. "How much ammo do you have?"

"Not much. Austin has a gun and some more bullets in his bag." Josie answered. She went over to the bag and began emptying its contents in order to find it.

"Moaners would have heard the noise. We wont be able to stay here for long," Arizona reminded us. Moaners. That was it.

"Does this house seem strangely void of moaners to anyone else?" I asked. Joe and I exchanged a glance at about the time that we heard a gun cock behind us. We both whirled around, our own guns raised to the man who stood at the top of the stairs. The guy's hands were shaking as he pointed the gun at us. He had short, messy, light brown hair. He was thin, slightly athletic in build. He wore a black and grey-stripped shirt, dark blue jeans and checkered vans. There were three purple and one black armband around his wrist and a hand that was bandaged in a white wrap. He seemed short, maybe around Austin's height and my age. His green eyes were wide with fear as he looked at us.

"Get the fuck out," the British accent said.

"Not gonna happen," Joe answered calmly. "How many are you?"

"None of your business. Are you lot the reason for all the shots outside?" The guy asked.

"None of your business." I sassed at him. The guy eyed us wearily.

"You need to get out of this house now. It's mine." The guys continued to insist. At the sound of voices near the door, we all went silent. When they drifted off again, Arizona spoke up.

"Please, our friends hurt. We can't leave," Arizona explained. The man opened his mouth to speak, but a woman appeared at his side. She put her hand on British guy's arm. She had dark blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail. Her skin was a beautiful tan color, looking amazing on her petite frame. She looked barely any taller than Arizona. Maybe around 5 feet? She had a blue tank top on with a flannel shirt over it and the bottom of the shirt tied around her middle. She wore jean shorts, and lace up boots. She had a few piercings in her ears, and had a few scars on her arm.

"It's ok, Dominick," The woman said. "Did you say someone was hurt?" She asked us.

"Yeah, our friend got shot." Sky answered, eyeing the woman wearily.

"I was a little over halfway through nursing school when all this shit happened. Can I take a look?" She asked us.

"No," Sky immediately answered.

"So you have medical training, medical supplies, and all that?" The blonde asked, an eyebrow rose in question. Sky didn't answer. "Then what other choice do you have if you want to save your friend?"

"She's right. She can start working on your friend and we can go take care of those men," Joe spoke up, lowering his weapon. I glanced at Sky, who shook her head no, but what other choice did we _really_ have? I lowered my weapon as well, the man, Dominick, doing the same.

"I'll get the medical supplies." Dominick told the blonde, disappearing back upstairs. The woman started to come down, heading toward Austin.

"You two, what are your names?" Joe pointed at Sky and I. Sky kept her lips sealed, not pleased about having to trust these people.

"I'm Brody. That's Sky," I answered.

"Sky, get the gun from the girl, and let's get to work on those fuckers out there." Joe ordered. I gave a curt nod, following the man as we went out the back door. I couldn't believe I was not only following the orders of this man, but also trusting those two strangers back there with my friend's lives, but what else was there to do?

* * *

 **Joe looks like Bradley Cooper**

 **Dominick looks like Jack McMullen**

 **Blonde Girl (you will learn her name in the next chapter) looks like Hayden Panettiere**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks so much for all the reviews! You guys blow me away with your constant support! Just a reminder that, yes, this story did start out with the writer BreenaBelle-xoxo but she couldn't do the story and gave me permission to do it.**

 **Thank you to the guest reviews, you guys are awesome! I hope y'all continue to like the new characters!**

 **There is a tumblr page for this story, so be sure to check it out. Link is on my profile.**

* * *

 **Molly's POV:**

I took in the pale kid who could only be a year or two younger than me.

"He's going to need a transfusion. Does anyone know his blood type or what their own is?" I order, rifling through the bag Dominick had brought me. No one answered.

"Molly," Dominick drew my attention. He held up a blood connection card in one hand and a wallet in the other. "He's AB."

"Good any of you can give him blood then," I sighed in relief. I pulled out the needle with the rubber tube connected to a small pouch. "Who am I draining?" The youngest girls eyes became so large I would have laughed if not for the seriousness of the situation. Dominick stepped forward but I shook my head. "You're not clean enough yet. Looks like you're up blondy." The girl swallowed, nodding meekly. "What's your name?" I asked as she sat down on the chair that Dominick had quickly brought into the room.

"Arizona," the girl mumbled as she eyed the needle warily.

"Fear of needles?" I asked.

"Yeah, so I may pass out during this. And by 'may' I mean I am completely going to pass out during this," Arizona rambled. Great. A few gunshots sounded outside, making us jump.

"What's your name sweetheart?" I asked the second girl.

"Josie." She answered shyly.

"Alright, Josie. I want you to sit behind Arizona and make sure that when she passes out she doesn't fall. Ready?" I asked Arizona. She shook her head no but still stuck out her arm for me. I inserted the needle, setting the pouch on the table so that the blood would drain down into it. Sure enough, after a few seconds, Arizona passed out, Josie having to catch her before she could fall forward. I blew out a breath, pulling out the cutting knife, surgical tweezers, and forceps. Sky, Brody, and Joe arrived back in the room. They looked from Arizona to the boy. "I need someone to hold him down. He'll probably wake up during this." Joe and Sky pressed down on his shoulders, while Dominick pinned down his legs. Brody glanced out the window, checking the area. I picked up the life, carefully slicing where the hole already was to make it bigger. As predicted, the boy woke up. His scream of pure pain chilled me to the core.

"Hold his legs better. He can't move or she might cut an organ," Joe ordered. The boys yells increased as I grabbed the forcep to hold open his skin as I searched for the bullet.

"He's going to attract moaners," Sky bit out as she struggled to hold the boy down.

"We'll deal with that after this," Joe gritted out. I ignored them, grabbing the tweezers as I followed the path.

"Can't you go any faster?" Brody snapped at me.

"I'm a nurse. Not a surgeon! Actually, I haven't even finished all my nursing classes!" I snapped.

"It's fine, just take a deep breath and start searching for the bullet again," Joe spoke in a calm voice. I did as he said, continuing on.

"No nicked organs," I muttered to myself. I managed to ignore the kids yell as I searched his abdomen. "Thank, God." I finally pulled out the bullet, which was thankfully intact with no shrapnel. When I removed the forcep, the boy letting out a slight sigh as his screaming stopped.

"Kendra," he breathed out before finally passing out. I grabbed the string and needle from my bag as I began stitching him up.

"He'll need antibiotics," I spoke without looking at the others. It suddenly dawned on me that I didn't even know his name. "What's his name?"

"Austin," Sky answered as she looked at the boy with what looked like gratitude.

"We can make a run for it," Joe answered and I used the knife to cut off the string.

"No we can't. Austin's screams and all the gunshots drew a lot of moaners." Brody told us, peaking through the front window.

"How many?" Joe asked as he moved forward to look outside. I finished cleaning the wound and began to bandage it.

"20. And counting," Brody answered. Dominick and Sky swore as they moved to look out the window as well.

"We should be safe in here. As long as we don't make any noise," Dominick whispered. I checked the bag of blood. Finding it full, I unhooked Arizona, patching her arm up before I changed the needle and reattached it to Austin. I stood up so that the blood would flow down easier.

"What about Austin? How long will he be okay without medicine?" Brody asked. Everyone turned to me.

"He'll recover the best if he gets it in the next hour. At most he could do 24 hours. By then infection will set in and that will kill him. There's no telling how dirty that gun and bullet were," I mused more to myself than to them.

"There's a pharmacy in town, just five miles down the road. It didn't look too raided when we saw it earlier," Dominick spoke up.

"Good. You and I can go there. We can draw away as many moaners as we can in the process," Joe ordered. Dom nodded in agreement.

"What do the rest of us do? Sit with our thumb in our ass?" Brody asked. I rolled my eyes at hardheadedness.

"Stay here and watch out for them." Joe used his thumb to point at the rest of us. Brody didn't respond, instead looking out the window. "Come on, kid." I made eye contact with Dom, silently communicating that he better only be getting antibiotics. As if knowing what I was thinking, he nodded before following Joe out the room.

* * *

 **Sky's POV:**

I knelt next to the couch that Austin was lying on, Arizona leaned against the wall across from us, finally awake and munching on peanut butter. Josie sat by her side, quietly monitoring the girl to make sure she was alright. Brody stood by the window, occasionally looking out it at the moaners.

"What's your name?" I asked quietly when I realized I had no clue who the girl was.

"Molly," she answered from where she sat next to me. Her eyes were closed, back to the couch, and head tilted back. Her hands were still stained red from Austin's blood. Austin. Thinking back to when I first met him almost three weeks ago, the amount of distrust I had for him, it seemed ludicrous to think about. He's taken a bullet to make sure our group got away from those men, and inadvertently saved me from one of my biggest fears. Not only was he strangely noble for this day and time, a trait I had a suspicion that Joe also had, but I actually liked and enjoyed his company. Past encounters with people had made me extremely weary of them, even before the outbreak.

"His plan worked. There's fewer moaners," Brody whispered to us. None of us responded. While I didn't get along with Brody, like him, or even agree with him on most things, I did somewhat trust him, at least enough to keep us safe. Josie moved to look out the window with him. Her innocent nature made me like and trust her immediately. Ever since we had joined Austin and Brody, she followed Austin around like a lost puppy, mimicking his moves and attempting to make jokes along with him, even if most of them weren't funny. Austin would still laugh loudly at her jokes, just happy someone was joking with him probably. Josie had started coming out of her shell, growing in confidence and boldness with him around. I couldn't have imagined what it would do to her if Austin didn't make it. Austin meant so much to all of us, keeping us happy and our minds off the depressing thing we called life. Even Arizona had already become attached to him. The girl got on my nerves, and I didn't trust her, but she had been willing to give blood to Austin despite her fear of needles. That had to mean something.

"How soon do you think he'll wake up?" Josie asked, coming to sit beside Molly and I.

"Hard to say," Molly shrugged. "Could be any second or a few hours."

"Who do you think Kendra is?" Josie asked, staring intently at Austin.

"Girlfriend, friend, sister, cousin, a bitch that screwed him over. Take your pick," Arizona answered. Silence overtook us again as we waited. Brody finally left the window to come sit in an armchair.

"So. How did you and Dominick meet?" Brody asked, kicking his feet up and putting his hands behind his head.

"I'm from California. When the outbreak hit out there, I went looking for my mom but she was already bitten. I stayed with my neighbor. He wanted to travel to DC, figured if there would be relief anywhere it would be there. We stole cars along the way, driving them till the tanks were empty to get to this side of the continent," Molly told us.

"What's you find?" I asked, focused in on her story.

"Don't know, it was too surrounded by shufflers to get in. That's how I lost my neighbor. I was hiding in an abandoned building when I found Dom. He was going through withdrawals from some drugs. I helped him through the withdrawals and we just stuck together. I think he's worried that if left on his own he will go looking for drugs again," Molly thought out loud. Dominick was a druggy? He didn't really look the type, but I suppose some people really don't. The news made me all the more weary of him.

"Helping druggies get clean, saving gunshot victims, you have a thing for helping people that can hurt you?" Brody asked.

"I'm impulsive and don't like watching people suffer when I know I can help, so I guess I do. I can take care of myself though. I know some self defense," Molly smirked. I had a feeling Molly and I would get along just fine.

"How did Dominick get to America?" Arizona asked. Molly shrugged in response. "What drove you south?"

"It's starting to get colder. We came south for some warmer weather," Molly explained. A groan sounded from the couch. We all anxiously rushed to Austin's side, waiting for him to open his eyes. When they fluttered open, he looked at all our faces. He was slowly starting to get back his natural tan color.

"How ya feeling?" Brody asked, sounding truly concerned.

"Probably better than the last girl that had to admit to sleeping with your ugly face." Austin joked. We all let out relieved chuckles. Yeah, he would be fine.


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm so sorry this has gone so long with updating. With midterms and my professors all giving me assignments at the same time, it somehow shoved this story to the back burner. These stories will probably only be updated once a week now, but the chapters will be a little longer as well.**

 **Thank you to skyblue5565 for reminding me how long the update had been. I hadn't even realized that it had been so long.**

 **Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! You guys are awesome!**

* * *

 **Joe's POV:**

It had been two weeks since I met up with those kids. We stayed in the house about a week and a half as Austin healed. Surprisingly enough, Austin was pretty positive about the entire situation. Really that was an understatement because the kid couldn't wait for the stitches to come out and to see what the scar would look like. Molly and Sky took turns changing the dressing for the wound. We were lucky enough to find the antibiotics that day. Dominick and Arizona were always eager to help with any chore that needed to be done. Surprisingly enough Josie was turning out to be rather helpful on runs. She had a knack for finding things we needed in stores that were well hidden, not to mention she could get in tight spaces because of her small size. Despite the fact that Brody was training to be a cop before the infection, he had a hard time taking orders. The more I gave them with positive outcomes seemed to be slowly making his back talk die down, though I was pretty sure it would never fully go away.

"You still with us, big guy?" Dominick brought me back to the present. I grunted in acknowledgement. "It's your turn."

"What's my letter?" I sighed.

"L," Sky answered in a bored voice as we walked along the road.

"Lasagna." There were a few groans in agreement amongst the group.

"McDonald's," Brody threw out next.

"Napkins," Austin sighed wistfully, causing the group to break out in laughter.

"Onions," Molly joked, following along Austin's theme.

"Potties," Sky sighed, looking at our toilet shovel in disgust.

"Question marks?" Dominick said uncertainly.

"Robbery?" Josie said in an equally confused tone.

"I lost the theme of this game at question marks," Arizona admitted. A few people groaned.

"It's the alphabet game. We were doing things we missed from before the world ended," I explained.

"Right, what's our letter now?" Arizona asked, jumping onto a small rock wall to walk on.

"I think we're on X," Brody spoke up.

"No, we're on F," Austin countered.

"We're on S," Sky threw a piece of trash on the ground at both Brody and Austin, making the boys snicker.

"Alright, S...uh, I miss…" Arizona trailed off in thought.

"Target," Austin simply said.

"Target start's with a T, not an S," Dominick pointed out. Austin shook his head, pointing to the store that was starting to come into view around the corner.

"No, I see Target. Do you think there's still anything good?" Austin asked, turning to look toward me as he reached a hand under his beanie to scratch his head.

"I doubt it. It was probably one of the first places to be scavenged," I answered. Austin nodded, still eyeing the store.

"We could still look. Who would it hurt?" Dominick proposed. I shrugged nodding for everyone to move ahead.

"Everyone stays in at least groups of two. Keep a weapon handy. Try to just use knives. No need to waste ammo when we don't have to," I ordered everyone as we walked to the front of the store. Dominick and Brody moved off silently to the left, Sky and Molly heading to the center of the store, while I followed Austin, Josie, and Arizona to the right. We searched up and down the isles, not finding any food left but we did find a new notepad and some pens and pencils for Josie.

"Isn't this stealing?" Josie asked uncertainly as Austin shoved the pens into her backpack.

"Nope. All of society has ended. Everything is free game," Austin told her, zipping up the girls bag without further question. We moved further back into the store. I looked up and down the hunting isle. Arizona stayed with me as Austin and Josie went one isle over.

"Soo…" Arizona broke the silence. I raised an eyebrow as I waited for her to finish. "Where were you stationed before this?"

"Texas," I simply answered. Arizona hummed in acknowledgement, probably wanting me to continue, but I didn't.

"What are you doing all the way in Georgia?" Austin asked as he rolled by the end of the isle on a scooter. I shook my head at his antics.

"I came to look for my ex-wife, make sure she was ok," I explained. "Haven't found her yet though."

"You came looking for your _ex-wife_?" Austin asked as he rolled down the isle on the scooter he found.

"I bet he still loves her," Josie said in a dreamy voice as she rode a bicycle down the isle. I didn't answer, picturing my ex-wife in my head. I let out a long sigh. Austin snorted.

"Dude, you're so _old_ ," Austin joked as he rolled back up the isle. Arizona shoved him as he road by.

"I think it's sweet," Arizona commented. Austin chuckled.

"Of course you do. You're a romantic," Austin teased.

"One day you'll find someone who will make you do crazy things," I told him, turning to watch as he rode up and down the isle. "And I'm not old. I'm 39."

"That is old," Austin laughed. "Will it make me travel cross country to see if they're alright even though they left me?" Austin asked sarcastically as he rode by. I stuck my foot out, tripping the scooter and causing him to fumble to catch himself before he fell. Arizona laughed.

"Something like that," I answered, a smirk crawling onto my face. I ignored Austin's glare as I looked around the isle. "Where's Josie?" Austin shot up from the ground, looking around. Not even a few seconds later, Josie walked backward past the isle, knife in hand with a walker following her. Austin and I moved down to help her, but Josie reached forward, grabbing a fist full of the walker's clothes, pulled it down so she could reach its head, and stabbed it. The now dead walker fell to the ground. Josie ripped her knife out, turning to look at us with large eyes.

"Did I do that right?" Josie asked uncertainly. Austin let out a chuckle of disbelief, while I shook my head.

"Yeah, I think you're getting the hang of this," I answered, shaking my head as I smiled. Josie let out a small chuckle of her own. "Let's go find the others." We walked back to the front of the store, Austin still on the scooter and making circles around us with it.

"Are you keeping that?" Arizona asked him. Austin shrugged his shoulders.

"I ran out of Adderall yesterday. It's helping me, surprisingly enough," Austin dismissed, continuing to circle our small group. Brody and Dominick came strolling forward.

"Find anything?" Arizona asked. Dominick threw her a brown jacket. It was slightly big, but she needed it, as the weather was growing brisker. Dominick also threw Josie a light blue sweatshirt. She quickly dawned it, thankful for the warmth. "Thanks!"

"We need to find us some jackets," Dominick commented, nodding toward Brody, Austin, and himself.

"Molly and Sky to the rescue!" Molly announced as she and Sky approached us. Sky threw Austin a dark green zip up jacket with lots of pockets and Dominick a black hoodie with the Atlanta Falcons logo on it. Molly threw Dominick a black North Face jacket.

"Oh, God. American football. Absolutely disgusting," Dominick muttered, eyeing the hoodie with distaste. Brody looked at the North Face jacket as if he were waiting for someone to say to burst out with a joke about him wearing it.

"Are you kidding me? Don't dis the Atlanta Falcons! They're my team!" Austin had finally stopped riding the scooter to investigate his jacket.

"Then trade with me," Dominick practically begged. Austin shrugged and threw the jacket toward Dominick. Brody intercepted the jacket, shoving the North Face jacket in Dominick's arms before snatching the hoodie and throwing that to Austin. Dominick looked slightly peeved, but looked at the jacket and shrugged, putting it on.

"So which way to your wife's house?" Arizona asked. I looked at her slightly confused. Austin let out a snort as he started riding the scooter around us again.

"What? You think your gonna tell us you came all the way from Texas looking for your wife, and we're going to make you suddenly stop looking because you joined our little group?" Austin asked.

"It's not like we really have a schedule to keep," Molly agreed.

"Or an actual destination in our wondering," Brody pointed out. Sky hummed in agreement. I smirked at them. This was the kind of group that each of us need, one that was more of a family.

"Hawkinsville," I answered. "I'm not exactly sure where that is. Once I get to the town, I can get to her house though."

"My grandma lived in Hawkinsville before she died. I can get us there via the interstate, but It will take us a while to get down there on foot," Austin told us.

"Then let's jack a car," Dominick shrugged his shoulders.

"Does anyone know how to break into a car?" Arizona asked in a joking tone.

"I do," Sky answered. We all stared at her for a few seconds. "I didn't have the most upstanding citizens as friends growing up."

"Do we look for an 8-seater or do we pick two cars?" Brody asked as we made our way out of the store.

"Let's try and find a 7 or 8-seater. Worst case scenario we take two cars," I answered. Austin continued to ride the scooter around the parking lot. "You know you can't keep riding that around us."

"Why not?" Austin asked, a shocked look on his face. Before I could answer, the front wheel of the scooter hit a rock, causing Austin to fly off it.

"That's why," I answered as I held in a chuckle.

* * *

 **Molly's POV:**

As our luck would have it, we found an 8-seater car…it was just a really old peace of crap. We were all squished into the orange Toyota Spacia, trying our best to not inhale too deeply the smell of stale farts and rotting food. The car ride luckily didn't last very long. We were able to make it to Hawkinsville in about two hours. Our car came to a stop outside a small neighborhood. Everyone sat in the car in silence, waiting for Joe to make the first move.

"Are we gonna sit here the whole time or what?" Arizona asked. Joe huffed out a sigh as he opened the driver's door, prompting the rest of us to also file out. Brody had his crossbow out, raised and ready to shoot. I pulled out my hatchet, keeping it handy in case we needed to use it. The others had their weapons handy as well. We walked the area quietly, following Joe as he led the way. Joe stopped on the porch of a small one story, pale, yellow house. He knocked quietly on the door, whistling loudly. No noise came from the house. The others followed Joe inside the house as Sky and I stayed on the porch to watch for moaners.

"You think we're gonna actually find her?" Sky spoke lowly so the others wouldn't hear us.

"Not likely. If she didn't turn she would have left here for some place safer," I spoke back just as lowly.

"And if she turned?" Sky asked, giving me a knowing look.

"If she turned, she still could have wondered from here. If she turned, I hope to God we don't find her," I answered. Sky nodded quietly. My eyes were drawn to her combat knife in her left hand, while her right hand was clenched in a fist. "I didn't know that you were left handed."

"I'm not. I just need my right hand free to punch stuff," Sky answered. She opened up her right hand, showing me a set of brass knuckles. I chuckled to myself. "My older brother loved to give me weapons. He was always worried about the crazy people that would get in the ambulances with me." Brody came out onto the porch with us.

"She's not there. We're loading up on the supplies inside," Brody told us. He leaned against the porch railing.

"Shouldn't you be helping then?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Why do that when I can be out here with you two?" He asked, sending me a flirtatious smirk. I snorted, rolling my eyes.

"Moaner," Sky announced. Brody's flirty attitude evaporated quickly. My eyes quickly spotted the movement as a moaner shuffled from around the corner of the house. Brody turned around, raising his crossbow, and shot the moaner in the head.

"Nice shot," I commented, leaning against the railing. Brody winked at me as he jumped off the porch, going to get his arrow. I shook my head, watching along with Sky as Brody retrieved his arrow. Brody yanked out the arrow, inspecting the damage with his body facing us. My smile quickly fell as a moaner came around the same corner, now heading straight for an oblivious Brody.

"Brody! Moaner behind you!" Sky yelled out. Brody's head shot up, quickly turning around right as a moaner grabbed onto his jacket. Brody shoved it at arms length as he turned awkwardly to shove the arrow in his hand into the moaners head. It fell to the ground dead, but there were more moaners coming around the corner. Brody started jogging back to us as the moaner count grew to over a dozen.

"Time to leave! Moaners are everywhere!" I yelled inside. I could hear scrambling as they all hurried to get outside. Sky and I jumped off the porch, heading for the moaners. I swung my hatchet, imbedding it into one of their heads. I ripped it out as Sky landed two good punches into a moaners head, bashing in its brains and killing it. Brody had thrown his crossbow over his shoulder and was now using his machete to kill the moaners around us. I swung my hatchet again, hitting this moaner in the front of its face. Blood spurted on the front of my body, but I ignored it. I heard the clomping down the porch stairs and turned to look at who was coming outside, but only turned just in time to see a moaner right behind me. Before I could react, the moaner froze before falling dead to the ground. I looked back in time to see Arizona standing there, knife in hand, and equally as surprised as I was.

"I didn't think that would actually work," Arizona admitted. I sent her a smile, swinging my hatchet at the moaner that came near us.

"You did good, kid. Now get to the van," I ordered. Arizona nodded, running ahead of the rest of the group.

"Crank the car, kid," Joe yelled, tossing the keys at Arizona. She didn't catch them but ran to grab them all the same. Joe and Dominick were outside now, helping us kill the moaners. Austin and Josie came out of the house last, Austin with his hand around Josie's as he pulled her to the car. As I took down another moaner, I heard the terrible sound of a car struggling to turn on, but failing.

"Car won't start!" Arizona yelled back.

"Sounds like the batteries dead," Brody yelled out as he stabbed one in the head.

"Looks like we're back to being on foot. Everyone grab your packs from the car if you can, but don't risk your life for it," Joe yelled out. "Head for the woods." I was in the middle of killing a moaner when I heard it. The unmistakable scream of a scared human in pain. My head whipped around to the noise. A moaner had come up behind Arizona, biting her on the shoulder and neck. An arrow pierced its skull, causing it to fall backward. I swung my hatchet, taking down another moaner as I saw Sky and Josie run to the girl. Austin took Sky's place beside me as he pulled out a hunting knife and began stabbing moaners in the temple. I yanked out my hatchet, looking around to discover that most of the walkers were gone. Only two more were coming around the corner. I ran to the van, seeing what I could do to help. The site that met me was grim. There was no way we could save her from this bite. Blood dripped from Arizona's shoulder as she cried loudly, choking slightly on her own blood.

"She's gonna turn," Brody muttered, making me jump as I hadn't heard him walk up. I heard Joe grunted next to me.

"She's suffering. We have to do something," Austin spoke up. No one spoke of the solution that we knew was needed.

"Everyone go stand on the other side of the car," Joe finally spoke up. I turned, walking with Dominick to the other side. The sound of shuffling feet let me know that the others were following. "I'm sorry sweetheart," I heard Joe mumble right as a gunshot rang out behind us.

* * *

 **And thus the first fell...**


	7. NOT A CHAPTER, IT'S AN AUTHORS NOTE

So, sorry this isn't a chapter. I am a little out of inspiration for this story at the moment. I will try and work on it and have another chapter for y'all as soon as I can, but it's going to take a little while.

So sorry!


End file.
